Color Me Impressed

Nice work RU. NinjaDon and AngryMark have Saturday race coverage. Good result from Chris Redmond today with multiple teammates in tow.

All very inspiring. I can't wait to tear all your legs off in May (kidding--but not really).

Seriously, though, RU's performance and results this weekend really motivated me and got me excited to race again this season, as if I needed more motivation and excitement. A lot of things have lost priority to cycling already (as it should be, of course).

Early season form is coming along well as a result of two 3 hour Saturday rides, the most recent of which I completed yesterday (Washington Ave, come straight back down Morning Glory then down to Coppermine) with a ride average of 199 watts. I had many realizations on this ride. One of which was that power measurement is certainly a good tool but I still believe that RPE is a better way to train. In the same vein, I am really frustrated by the apparent epidemic I've seen on the Rutgers email list. It seems that a few of the 'experienced' riders have been doling out training opinions that I fear the 'inexperienced' riders may be taking as gospel, i.e. L4 and L5 training and tons of it. Apart from the inappropriateness of this type of training for those new to the sport, there is another problem with this "Coggan-style" training approach: it doesn't win you races. Sure, it can make you go fast like Todd, but ask Todd how many races he's won in his whole career in any category (this is left as an exercise for the reader).

As AngryMark has so aptly pointed out (too lazy to get a link), the best way to race your bike is to spend the least amount of energy possible until you absolutely have to. A Category 3, 4 or 5 race generally unfolds thusly: sit in, field sprint. Therefore, if you want to win these races, your training should consist of teaching your body how to cover miles in an efficient way, as if you were sitting in, conserving the most energy. The way to do that is by doing long endurance/tempo rides in your early preparation (pre-season to early season). The benefit of these rides is two-fold: 1) your body learns (or hopefully re-learns) how to burn fat before using glycogen and 2) you learn how to be biomechanically efficient during long efforts in the saddle. Once the season is underway it's good to mix in sprint and supra-threshold work because that is definitely important.

Next time you are doing intervals, ask yourself this question, "How many times in a race I've done have I had to go hard for 5 minutes/10 minutes/20 minutes" or however long your interval may be.

This can all be summed up by: If you want to go fast, train like Todd. If you want to win races, don't.

P.S. Feel free to have as much disdain for my training advice as I most assuredly have for yours.